#lnzndrf

-----Mx #98: Werewolf Detective----- (#1-24, 1:19:39) *01. Thom Yorke "Klemperer Walks" (1:35) 02. Grade "Seamless" (3:02) 03. Elvis Presley "Surrender" (1:55) *04. Witchduck "Picture in My Pocket" (3:03) *05. Amplitude Problem "Tomb of Khufu" (3:20) 06. Pandoras "Just a Picture" (3:03) 07. Restiform Bodies "Consumer Culture Wave" (3:39) *08. Japanese House "3/3" (4:01) *09. Oxes "Strong Enough (Sheryl Crow) (w Will Oldham)" (2:53) 10. Gaslamp Killer "Good Morning (w Gonjasufi)" (3:48) *11. Holiday Ghosts "Slipstream" (2:35) 12. LNZNDRF "Kind Things" (3:40) 13. Young Fathers "Toy" (3:13) *14. Cool Sounds "Grudge" (3:23) 15. Kristoff Krane "Bird Tribe" (3:49) 16. Torpeedoh "Ball of Confusion 2010" (4:01) 17. Nena "99 Luftballons" (3:52) *18. Shame "Concrete" (3:34) 19. Fantomas "Spider Baby" (2:26) *20. Deidre & the Dark "Unerasable Love" (4:21) *21. Beastie Boys "Hey Ladies" (3:48) *22. Viva Belgrado "Pleiades/Pasaportes" (2:41) 23. Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show "Roland the Roadie and Gertrude the Groupie" (3:02) 24. Modeselektor "Who? (w Tommy Cash)" (4:41)

Every Record I Own - Day 738: LNZNDRF s/t

The brothers in The National’s rhythm section---bassist Scott Devendorf and drummer Bryan Devendorf---teamed up with guitarist Ben Lanz for LNZNDRF, a krautrock / post-punk / space rock side project back in the mid-’00s. I have to admit... I’m a pretty big fan of a few of The National’s albums. I enjoy how they take this Leonard Cohen-style of dour, baritone-throated songwriting and infuse it with deceptively heady and texturally rich instrumentation. It’s easy to direct all the attention on Matt Berninger, The National’s frontman, but there’s so much more at work in their music than the vocal melodies and cryptic lyrics.

As if to prove it, you have the LNZNDRF LP, which, while not adverse to some of the more conventional aspects of ‘00/’10 indie rock, leans more heavily into protracted, hypnotic La Düsseldorf / Neu! style instrumental jamming than their peers of the era. I got quite a bit of mileage out of this LP back when it came out in 2016 but had forgotten about it in recent years. Funny how six years doesn’t seem like a long time anymore. Time is elastic, y’all. That said, it was a nice surprise to see this one pop up in the queue, and I had a pleasant morning revisiting it. Good songs, good production, good atmosphere. 

Bonus bad joke I shared on Twitter back in 2019: “Still enjoying the krautrock vibes of The National side-project LNZNDRF but still upset they didn’t name the band The National Autobahn Society.”

LNZNDRF – II

Siempre he pensado que la base rítmica es de lo mejor que tienen The National. Sobre todo, su batería, que lleva unos cuantos años sacándose de la manga unos ritmos cojonudos. Por eso es normal que me gusten tanto LNZNDRF, la banda en el que nos encontramos esa sección rítmica (los hermanos Devendorf), junto a Ben Lanz, que también forma parte de The National, además de tocar con Beirut, y Aaron…

‘Beneath the Black Sea’ by LNZNDRF, from ‘LNZNDRF’